John Day
John Day (1574-1640?) was an English playwright of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Life Overview Day, the son of a Norfolk yeoman, was at Cambridge, 1592-1593. It is only since 1881 that his works have been identified. He collaborated with Dekker and others in plays, and was the author of The Isle of Gulls (1606), Law Trickes (1608), and Humour out of Breath (1608), also of an allegorical masque, The Parliament of Bees.John William Cousin, "Day, John," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 110. Web, Jan. 2, 2018. Youth and education Day was born at Cawston, Norfolk, in 1574, and educated at Ely. He became a sizar of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1592, but was expelled in the next year for stealing a book.Britannica 1911, 875. Career He became one of Henslowe’s playwrights, collaborating with Henry Chettle, William Haughton, Thomas Dekker, Richard Hathway, and Wentworth Smith, but his almost incessant activity seems to have left him poor enough, to judge by the small loans of 5 shillings and even 2 shillings that he obtained from Henslowe. The 1st play in which Day appears as part-author is The Conquest of Brute, with the finding of the Bath (1598), which, with most of his journeyman’s work, is lost. A drama dealing with the early years of the reign of Henry VI, The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green (acted 1600, printed 1659), written in collaboration with Chettle, is his earliest extant work. It bore the sub-title of The Merry Humor of Tom Strowd, the Norfolk Yeoman, and was so popular that 2nd and 3rd parts, by Day and Haughton, were produced in the next year. The Ile of Guls (printed 1606), a prose comedy founded upon Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, contains in its light dialogue much satire to which the key is now lost, but Swinburne notes in Manasses’s burlesque of a Puritan sermon a curious anticipation of the eloquence of Mr Chadband in Bleak House. In 1607 Day produced, in conjunction with William Rowley and George Wilkins, The Travailes of the Three English Brothers, which detailed the adventures of Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony and Robert Shirley. There is no earlier known edition of The Parliament of Bees than that in 1641, but a persistent tradition has assigned the piece to 1607. In 1608 Day published 2 comedies, Law Trickes; or, Who would have thought it? and Humour out of Breath. Death The date of Day's death is unknown, but an elegy on him by John Tatham, the city poet, was published in 1640. Writing The 6 dramas by John Day which we possess show a delicate fancy and dainty inventiveness all his own. He preserved, in a great measure, the dramatic tradition of John Lyly, and affected a kind of subdued euphuism. The Maydes Metamorphosis (1600), once supposed to be a posthumous work of Lyly’s, may be an early work of Day’s. It possesses, at all events, many of his marked characteristics. His prose Peregrinatio Scholastica; or, Learninges pilgrimage, dating from his later years, was printed by A.H. Bullen from a MS. of Day’s. Considerations partly based on this work have suggested that he had a share in the anonymous Pilgrimage to Parnassus and the Return from Parnassus. The Parliament of Bees is the work on which Day’s reputation chiefly rests. This exquisite and unique drama, or rather masque, is entirely occupied with “the doings, the births, the wars, the wooings” of bees, expressed in a style at once most singular and most charming. The bees hold a parliament under Prorex, the Master Bee, and various complaints are preferred against the humble-bee, the wasp, the drone and other offenders. This satirical allegory of affairs ends with a royal progress of Oberon, who distributes justice to all. The piece contains much for which parallel passages are found in Dekker’s Wonder of a Kingdom (1636) and Samuel Rowley’s (or Dekker’s) Noble Soldier (printed 1634). The beauty and ingenuity of The Parliament of Bees were noted and warmly extolled by Charles Lamb; and Day’s work has since found many admirers. Day's works, edited by Bullen, were printed at the Chiswick Press in 1881. The same editor included The Maid's Metamorphosis in Vol. 1 of his Collection of Old Plays. The Parliament of Bees and Humour out of Breath were printed in Nero, and other plays (Mermaid Series, 1888), with an introduction by Arthur Symons. Recognition An appreciation by Swinburne appeared in The Nineteenth Century (October 1897). Publications *''The Isle of Guls; as it hath been often playd in the blacke Fryars''. London: Iohn Hodgets, 1606 **''The Isle of Guls: A critical edition'' (edited by Raymond S. Burns). New York: Garland Press, 1980. *''The Travailes of the Three English Brothers''. London: John Wright, 1607. *''Humour out of Breath: A comedie''. London: John Helmes, 1608. *''Law-trickes; or, Who would have thought it''. London: Richard More, 1608; London: Malone Society, 1949. *''The Parliament of Bees: With their proper characters''. London: William Lees, 1641 **''A Critical Edition of John Day's 'Parliament of Bees' (edited by William T. Cocke). New York: Garland, 1979. *''The Blind-beggar of Bednal Green; with The merry humor of Tom Strowd the Norfolk Yeoman. London: R. Pollard & Tho. Dring, 1659 Non-fiction *''Peregrinatio scholastica'' in Bullen, 1881. Collected editions *''Works: Now first collected'' (edited by A.H. Bullen). (2 volumes), London: Chiswick Press, 1881; London: Holland Press, 1963. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:John Day, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, June 2, 2016. See also *List of English-language playwrights References * Wikisource, Web, Jan. 3, 2018. * Hotson, Leslie M., "The Adventure of a Single Rapier", Atlantic Monthly, July 1931 Notes External links ;About *John Day in the Encyclopædia Britannica *John Day at No Sweat Shakespeare *John Day (1574-1640) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 *Day, John in the Dictionary of National Biography * Original article is at Day, John Category:1574 births Category:1640s deaths Category:English Renaissance dramatists Category:People from Broadland (district) Category:People of the Tudor period Category:People of the Stuart period Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Category:16th-century English writers Category:17th-century English writers Category:16th-century dramatists and playwrights Category:17th-century dramatists and playwrights Category:English male dramatists and playwrights